Reference: John, The Epistles of
Fausets
FIRST EPISTLE. Genuineness. Polycarp, John's disciple (ad Philippians 7), quotes 1Jo 4:3. Eusebius (H. E., iii. 39) says of Papias, John's hearer, "he used testimonies from the first epistle of John." Irenaeus (Eusebius, H. E., v. 8) often quoted it; he quotes (Haeres. iii. 15, sections 5,8) from John by name 1Jo 2:18; and in 1Jo 3:16, section 7 he quotes 1Jo 4:1-3; 5:1; 2Jo 1:7-8. Clement Alex. (Strom. ii. 66, p. 664) refers to 1Jo 5:16 as in John's larger epistle; compare Strom. iii. 32,42; iv. 102. Tertullian adv. Marcion, vi. 16, refers to 1Jo 4:1; adv. Praxean xv to 1Jo 1:1; also 1Jo 1:10, and contra Gnost. 12. Cyprian (Ep. 28:24) quotes 1Jo 2:3-4 as John's; and, de Orat. Domini, 5, quotes 1Jo 2:15-17; De opere et Eleemos. quotes 1Jo 1:8; De bono Patientiae quotes 1Jo 2:6.
Muratori's Fragment on the Canon states "there are two (the Gospel and epistle) of John esteemed universal," quoting 1Jo 1:3. The Peshito Syriac has it. Origen (Eusebius vi. 25) designates the first epistle genuine, and "probably second and third epistles, though all do not recognize the latter two"; he quotes 1Jo 1:5 (tom. 13 vol. 2). Dionysius of Alexandria, Origen's scholar, cites this epistle's words as the evangelist John's. Eusebius (H. E., iii. 24) says John's first epistle and Gospel are "acknowledged without question by those of the present day, as well as by the ancients." So Jerome (Catalog. Ecclesiastes Script.). Marcion opposed it only because it was opposed to his heresies. The Gospel and the first epistle are alike in style, yet evidently not mere copies either of the other. The individual notices, it being a universal epistle, are fewer than in Paul's epistles; but what there are accord with John's position.
He implies his apostleship (1Jo 2:7,26), alludes to his Gospel (Joh 1:1, compare Joh 1:14; 20:27), and the affectionate He uniting him as an aged pastor to his spiritual "children" (1Jo 2:18-19). In 1Jo 4:1-3 he alludes to the false teachers as known to his readers; in 1Jo 5:21 he warns them against the idols of the world around. Docetism existed in germ already, though the Docete by name appear first in the second century (Col 1:15-18; 1Ti 3:16; Heb 1:1-3). Hence 1Jo 4:1-3 denounces as "not of God every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh" (compare Joh 2:22-23). Presciently the Spirit through John forearms the church against the coming heresy.
TO WHOM THE EPISTLES WERE ADDRESSED. Augustine (Quaest. Evang. 2:39) says it was addressed to the Parthians, i.e. the Christians beyond the Euphrates, outside the Roman empire, "the church at Babylon elected together with" (1Pe 5:13) the churches in the Ephesian region, where Peter sent his epistles (1Pe 1:1; Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia). As Peter addressed the Asiatic flock tended first by Paul, then by John, so John, Peter's close companion, addresses the flock among whom Peter was when he wrote. Thus "the elect lady" (2Jo 1:1) answers to "the church elected together."
TIME AND PLACE. This epistle is subsequent to the Gospel, for it assumes the reader's acquaintance with the Gospel facts and Christ's speeches, and His aspect as the incarnate Word God manifest in the flesh, set forth in John's Gospel. His fatherly tone addressing his "little children" implies it was written in old age, perhaps A.D. 90. The rise of antichristian teachers he marks as a sign of "the last time" (1Jo 2:18), no other "age" or dispensation will be until Christ comes; for His coming the church is to be ever waiting; Heb 1:2, "these last days." The region of Ephesus, where Gnostic heresy sprang up, was probably the place, and the latter part of the apostolic age the time, of writing. Contents. Fellowship with the Father and the Son is the subject and object (1Jo 1:3). Two divisions occur:
(1) 1 John 1:5 - 2:28, God is light without darkness; consequently, to have fellowship with Him necessitates walking in the light. Confession and consequent forgiveness of sins, through Christ's propitiation for the world and advocacy for believers, are a necessary preliminary; a further step is positive keeping God's commandments, the sum of which is love as contrasted with hatred, the sum of disobedience. According to their several stages of spiritual growth, children, fathers, young men, as respectively forgiven, knowing the Father, and having overcome the wicked one, John exhorts them not to love the world, which is incompatible with the indwelling of the Father's love. This anointing love dwelling in us, and our continuing to abide in the Son and in the Father, is the antidote against the antichristian teachers in the world, who are of the world, not of the church, and therefore have gone out from it.
(2) 1 John 2:29 - 5:5 handles the opening thesis: "He is righteous," therefore "every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him." Sonship involves present self purification, first because we desire now to be like Him, "even as He is pure," secondly because we hope hereafter to be perfectly like Him, our sonship now hidden shall be manifested, and we shall be made like Him when He shall be manifested (answering to Paul's Colossians 3), for our then "seeing him as He is" involves transfiguration into His likeness (compare 2Co 3:18; Php 3:21). In contrast, the children of the devil hate; the children of God love. Love assures of acceptance with God for ourselves and our prayers, accompanied as they are with obedience to His commandment to "believe on Jesus Christ, and love one another"; the seal is "the Spirit given us" (1Jo 3:24). In contrast (as in the first division), denial of Christ and adherence to the world characterize the false spirits (1Jo 4:1-6). The essential feature of sonship or birth of God is unslavish love to God, because God first loved us and gave His Son to die for us (1Jo 4:18-19), and consequent love to the brethren as being God's sons like ourselves, and so victory over the world through belief in Jesus as the Son of God (1Jo 5:4-5).
(3) 1Jo 5:6-21. Finally, the truth on which our fellowship with God rests is, Christ came by water in His baptism, the blood of atonement, and the witnessing Spirit which is truth, which correspond to our baptism with water and the Spirit, and our receiving the atonement by His blood and the witness of His Spirit. In the opening he rested this truth on his apostolic witness of the eye, the ear, and the touch; so at the close on God's witness, which the believer accepts, and by rejecting which the unbeliever makes God a liar. He adds his reason for writing (1Jo 5:13), corresponding to 1Jo 1:4 at the beginning, namely, that "believers may know they have (already) eternal life," the spring of "joy" (compare Joh 20:31), and so may have "confidence" in their prayers being answered (1Jo 5:14-15; compare 1Jo 3:22 in the second part), e.g. their intercessions for a brother sinning, provided his sin be not unto death (1Jo 5:16). He sums up with stating our knowledge of Him that is true, through His gift, our being in Him by virtue of being in His Son Jesus Christ; being "born of God" we keep ourselves so that the wicked one toucheth us not, in contrast to the world lying in the wicked one; therefore still, "little children, keep yourselves from idols" literal and spiritual.
STYLE. Aphorism and repetition of his own phrases abound. The affectionate hortatory tone, and the Hebraistic form which delights in parallelism of clauses (as contrasted with Paul's logical Grecian style), and his own simplicity of spirit dwelling fondly on the one grand theme, produce this repetition of fundamental truths again and again, enlarged, applied, and condensed by turns. Contemplative rather than argumentative, he dwells on the inner rather than the outer Christian life. The thoughts do not move forward by progressive steps, as in Paul, but in circles round one central thought, viewed now under the positive now under the negative aspect. His Lord's contrasted phrases in the Gospel John adopts in his epistles, "flesh," "spirit," "light," "darkness," "life," "death," "abide in Him"; "fellowship with the Father and Son, and with one another" is a phrase not in the Gospel, but in Acts and Paul's e
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Only be strong and very courageous to observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou may have good success wherever thou go. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shall meditate on it day and night, that thou may observe to do according to all that is written in it, for then thou shall make thy way prosperous, and then thou sha read more. Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage. Be not frightened, neither be thou dismayed, for LORD thy God is with thee wherever thou go. Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying,
Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall abide in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but ye shall pass over before your brothers armed, all the mighty men of valor, and shall help them
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
When therefore he was raised from the dead his disciples remembered that he spoke this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus said. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name seeing his signs that he did.
Then he says to Thomas, Bring thy finger here, and see my hands, and bring thy hand, and put into my side, and do not become faithless, but believing.
But these are written, so that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye may have life in his name.
Gaius my host, and of the whole congregation, salutes you. Erastus, the manager of the city, salutes you, and Quartus the brother.
But we all, with unveiled face seeing by reflection the glory of Lord, are transformed into the same likeness from glory to glory, just as from the Spirit of Lord.
who will transform the body of our lowliness, in order for it to become similar in form to the body of his glory, according to the working of his power even to subject all things to himself.
in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, who is an image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. read more. Because in him all things were created, things in the heavens and things upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or lordships or principal offices or positions of authority, all things have been created And he is before all, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might become preeminent in all things.
God, who formerly spoke in many portions and in many ways to the fathers by the prophets, spoke to us in these last days by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the ages.
whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the ages. Who, being the radiance of his glory, and the exact image of his essence, and upholding all things by the word of his power, having made purification of our sins through himself, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in the
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen who are sojourners of the Dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen who are sojourners of the Dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you, and peace be multiplied.
I, a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of the Christ, and a partaker of the glory going be revealed, exhort the elders among you:
She in Babylon, chosen together, salutes you, and my son Mark.
She in Babylon, chosen together, salutes you, and my son Mark.
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon, and our hands touched, concerning the Word of life
what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that ye also may have fellowship with us. Even also our fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that ye also may have fellowship with us. Even also our fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we write these things to you, so that our joy may be made full. read more. And this is the message that we have heard from him and declare to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have no sin, we lead ourselves astray, and the truth is not in us.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
And by this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says, I know him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in this man.
He who claims to abide in him he also ought so to walk just as that man walked. Brothers, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment that ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that ye heard from the beginning.
Love not the world, nor the things in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Because everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the arrogance of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. read more. And the world passes away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides into the age. Children, it is the last hour. And as ye heard that the antichrist comes, and now many antichrists have developed, from which we know that it is the last hour.
Children, it is the last hour. And as ye heard that the antichrist comes, and now many antichrists have developed, from which we know that it is the last hour.
Children, it is the last hour. And as ye heard that the antichrist comes, and now many antichrists have developed, from which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they were of us, they would have continued with us, but--so that they might be made known, that they are not all of us.
I wrote these things to you concerning those who lead you astray.
By this we know love, because that man laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
and whatever we may ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do things pleasing in his sight.
And he who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, from the Spirit that he gave us.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but examine the spirits, whether they are of God, because many FALSE prophets have gone out into the world.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but examine the spirits, whether they are of God, because many FALSE prophets have gone out into the world.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but examine the spirits, whether they are of God, because many FALSE prophets have gone out into the world.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but examine the spirits, whether they are of God, because many FALSE prophets have gone out into the world.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but examine the spirits, whether they are of God, because many FALSE prophets have gone out into the world. By this ye know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ having come in flesh is of God,
By this ye know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ having come in flesh is of God,
By this ye know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ having come in flesh is of God,
By this ye know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ having come in flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ has come in flesh is not of God. And this is that of the antichrist, which ye have heard that it comes, and is now in the world already.
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ has come in flesh is not of God. And this is that of the antichrist, which ye have heard that it comes, and is now in the world already.
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ has come in flesh is not of God. And this is that of the antichrist, which ye have heard that it comes, and is now in the world already.
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ has come in flesh is not of God. And this is that of the antichrist, which ye have heard that it comes, and is now in the world already.
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ has come in flesh is not of God. And this is that of the antichrist, which ye have heard that it comes, and is now in the world already. Ye are of God, little children, and ye have overcome them, because greater is he in you than he in the world. read more. They are of the world. Because of this they speak of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
Fear is not in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear holds punishment, and he who is afraid has not been fully perfected in love. We love him, because he first loved us.
Every man who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten from God, and every man who loves him who begot, also loves him who has been begotten from him.
Because everything that has been begotten from God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. And who is he who overcomes the world, if not he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? read more. This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And it is the Spirit that testifies, because the Spirit is truth. Because those who testify are three: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood. And the three are in one. If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. Because this is the testimony of God that he has testified about his Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has testified about his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave eternal life to us, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. I wrote these things to you, those who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe in the name of the Son of God.
I wrote these things to you, those who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe in the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we may ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked from him.
And if we know that he hears us, whatever we may ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked from him. If any man may see his brother sinning a sin not toward death, he will ask, and he will give life to him, to those not sinning toward death. There is sin toward death. I do not say that he should make request about that.
If any man may see his brother sinning a sin not toward death, he will ask, and he will give life to him, to those not sinning toward death. There is sin toward death. I do not say that he should make request about that.
If any man may see his brother sinning a sin not toward death, he will ask, and he will give life to him, to those not sinning toward death. There is sin toward death. I do not say that he should make request about that. All unrighteousness is sin. And there is sin not toward death. read more. We know that every man who has been begotten from God does not sin, but he who was begotten from God keeps himself, and the evil does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world is set in the evil. And we know that the Son of God comes, and has given us understanding, so that we may know the true. And we are in the true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the TRUE God, and the eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from the idols. Truly.
Little children, guard yourselves from the idols. Truly.
The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who know the truth,
Because many deceivers have gone forth into the world, those not acknowledging Jesus Christ coming in flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
If any man comes to you, and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into a house, and do not speak to him to rejoice.
If any man comes to you, and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into a house, and do not speak to him to rejoice.
If any man comes to you, and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into a house, and do not speak to him to rejoice. For he who speaks to him to rejoice, partakes of his evil works.
For he who speaks to him to rejoice, partakes of his evil works. Having many things, I did not want to write to you by paper and ink, but I hope to come to you, and to speak mouth to mouth, so that our joy may be filled.
The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
I have no greater joy than these things that I hear my children walking in truth. Beloved, thou do a faithful thing, whatever thou work for the brothers and for strangers,